Politics After Television: Hindu Nationalism and the Reshaping of the Public in IndiaWinner of the 2003 Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy Book Prize In January 1987, the Indian state-run television began broadcasting a Hindu epic in serial form, the Ramayan, to nationwide audiences, violating a decades-old taboo on religious partisanship. What resulted was the largest political campaign in post-independence times, around the symbol of Lord Ram, led by Hindu nationalists. The complexion of Indian politics was irrevocably changed thereafter. In this book, Arvind Rajagopal analyses this extraordinary series of events. While audiences may have thought they were harking back to an epic golden age, Hindu nationalist leaders were embracing the prospects of neoliberalism and globalisation. Television was the device that hinged these movements together, symbolising the new possibilities of politics, at once more inclusive and authoritarian. Simultaneously, this study examines how the larger historical context was woven into and changed the character of Hindu nationalism. |
Contents
Hindu nationalism and the cultural forms of Indian politics | 30 |
In the throes of economic crisis liberalizationHinduization | 35 |
Passive revolution and the unraveling of a fragile consensus | 43 |
The Hindu nationalist combine | 51 |
The noncommitted voter and the retailing of Hindu identity | 63 |
Prime time religion | 72 |
State sponsorship in the commerce of images | 75 |
Situating contemporary uses of an epic tradition | 86 |
The Ram Janmabhumi campaign as a managed event | 187 |
Languagedivided print media as a strategic resource | 208 |
Organization performance and symbol | 212 |
Performing the movement | 216 |
Yoking symbols and propaganda | 224 |
Hindutva goes global | 237 |
The figure of the NRI | 239 |
crafting identity across diversity | 244 |
ancient science benign oppression and a protomodern state | 99 |
Old symbols in a new language of politics | 117 |
The communicating thing and its public | 121 |
Television and the restructuring of popular and domestic space | 123 |
Television and the transformation of the context of politics | 135 |
The effects of going public | 147 |
A split public in the making and unmaking of the Ram Janmabhumi movement | 151 |
government language and politics | 156 |
the BJPs print media strategy | 171 |
Other editions - View all
Politics After Television: Hindu Nationalism and the Reshaping of the Public ... Arvind Rajagopal No preview available - 2001 |
Common terms and phrases
activists Advani appeared argued argument assertion audience Ayodhya Babri Masjid Bharatiya BJP's broadcast campaign capital caste character claims classes context Court critical cultural December declared Delhi demolition dominant Doordarshan effect Emergency English language English language press epic Faizabad film Gandhi genre Hindi language Hindu nationalism Hindu nationalists Hinduism Hindutva historical identity India Indian Express institutions issue kar seva L. K. Advani Lakshman leaders liberalization ment Minister mobilization modern mosque Muslim narrative Nehruvian newspapers November offered organization percent Political Weekly popular public sphere Rajiv Ram Janmabhumi movement Ram temple Rama Ramayan Ramayan serial rath yatra religion religious Report riots ritual Sagar sangh secular sense Shabari shila Singh Sita social society split public story symbols television temple movement tion tradition University Press V. P. Singh VHP's viewers Vishwa Hindu Parishad vote
Popular passages
Page 8 - The theory of strictly economic practices is a particular case of a general theory of the economy of practices. Even when they give every appearance of disinterestedness because they escape the logic of "economic...
References to this book
Globalizing India: Perspectives from Below Jackie Assayag,Christopher John Fuller No preview available - 2005 |